Comments on: The FTC vs. Bloggers: Word of Mouth Guidelines or Caste System? http://chicagotechnews.com/commentary/the-ftc-vs-bloggers-word-of-mouth-guidelines-or-caste-system Your Technology Business News Source For Chicago Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:14:03 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 By: Payola is still illegal so watch out bloggers | (iverson's) currentbuzz http://chicagotechnews.com/commentary/the-ftc-vs-bloggers-word-of-mouth-guidelines-or-caste-system/comment-page-1#comment-165 Payola is still illegal so watch out bloggers | (iverson's) currentbuzz Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:12:32 +0000 http://chicagotechnews.com/?p=402#comment-165 [...] Thanks to Todd Allen of Chicago Tech News for this more nuanced discussion of the issue of payola, bloggers, journalists, and the FTC. The FTC’s definitions of who is [...] [...] Thanks to Todd Allen of Chicago Tech News for this more nuanced discussion of the issue of payola, bloggers, journalists, and the FTC. The FTC’s definitions of who is [...]

]]> By: Phillip Barnhart http://chicagotechnews.com/commentary/the-ftc-vs-bloggers-word-of-mouth-guidelines-or-caste-system/comment-page-1#comment-124 Phillip Barnhart Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:28:45 +0000 http://chicagotechnews.com/?p=402#comment-124 Excluding twitter for the moment, why not use an existing paradigm to deal with affiliate links - semantically as microformats?. Something as simple as rel="affiliate" might be sufficient. A more complex microformat might identify the advertiser or network (a la rel="license" microformat”). This way, the small percentage of people who may be concerned can download the inevitable plugin if needed, management and links to privacy and disclosure pages automated, etc. Of course, the real drivers of this may need to the actual affiliate programs - if CJ for example put this in their auto code generation tool. As for Twitter, the major URL shorteners like BudURL could simply set up a complementary domain for affiliate/sponsored links and maintain the disclosure on their site via a link preview function. Again, it would help if Twitter then autotagged the URL. A modest proposal, at least. And requires no one else’s permission to start! Excluding twitter for the moment, why not use an existing paradigm to deal with affiliate links – semantically as microformats?. Something as simple as rel=”affiliate” might be sufficient. A more complex microformat might identify the advertiser or network (a la rel=”license” microformat”).

This way, the small percentage of people who may be concerned can download the inevitable plugin if needed, management and links to privacy and disclosure pages automated, etc. Of course, the real drivers of this may need to the actual affiliate programs – if CJ for example put this in their auto code generation tool.

As for Twitter, the major URL shorteners like BudURL could simply set up a complementary domain for affiliate/sponsored links and maintain the disclosure on their site via a link preview function. Again, it would help if Twitter then autotagged the URL.

A modest proposal, at least. And requires no one else’s permission to start!

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